Dentmon leads Washington past Eastern Washington

Dentmon scored 23 points, including 19 in the second half, as
the 13th-ranked Huskies posted a 90-83 victory over Eastern
Washington.

Quincy Pondexter scored 15 points and Adrian Oliver added 14,
including 10 in the first half, for the Huskies (5-0), who have
won 19 consecutive regular-season non-conference games.

After shooting just 1-of-4 in the first half, Dentmon finished
7-of-12 from the field for Washington, which shot 43 percent
(29-of-67) and has won 11 straight at home and 44 of its last 46
at Bank of America Arena.

"Justin Dentmon got going offensively and helped us," Washington
coach Lorenzo Romar said. "We told our guys before the game,
that no matter if it was a one-point game or a 20-point victory,
as long as we competed, we had done what we wanted to do. We
didn't do it for 40 minutes, but I thought tonight we still made
some progress."

With just over three minutes left in the first half, Eastern
Washington led, 47-35, but Washington went on an 11-0 run capped
by Oliver's half-court shot at the buzzer to bring the Huskies
within one at halftime.

"That was worthy of SportsCenter," Romar said. "We were already
coming, but we closed out the half pretty well. That sent us
in the locker room with a risen spirit."

"I thought our team played extremely hard," Eastern Washington
Mike Burns said. "I thought our efforts gave us a good chance.
I thought for the most part we did a good job of taking care of
the basketball and giving ourselves the opportunities for some
open shots.

"I thought we played really hard," Stuckey said. "We just came
up short basically. Offensive rebounds really hurt us this game.
Missing crucial free throws at crucial times, and stuff like
that, but we are just going to get better."